DeMario Jackson Says ‘Bachelor In Paradise’ Controversy ‘Wouldn’t Have Been A Story’ If He Were White

After getting off to a rocky production start (a gross understatement) last June, the fourth season of the ABC reality show Bachelor in Paradise returned with a two-part premiere this week. The Bachelor spinoff has been mired in controversy ever since production was halted over allegations of sexual misconduct.

The contestants in question were DeMario Jackson and Corinne Olympios, and the details about what actually happened between the two in that resort pool have varied wildly. Crew members came forward with their own takes, as have numerous unnamed sources. All that being said, the official investigation–which included reviews of all the footage and interviews with everyone present–turned up nothing. Both Jackson and Olympios were dismissed from the cast following the controversy, and Bachelor in Paradise implemented new rules regarding substance abuse.

Now that Bachelor in Paradise’s halted season is now on the air, DeMario Jackson has opened up about his experience in Sayulita, Mexico in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Jackson’s main takeaway: none of this would have happened if Olympios had been black or if Jackson had been white.

“This wouldn’t have been a story. We wouldn’t even be having this discussion at all,” said Jackson. “Right now, you would just be watching Paradise and saying, ‘DeMario’s whistle is so annoying!’ The minute you saw a black man and a white woman’s face. I had black America who hated me because I’m a sellout with a white girl. And I had white America calling me the N-word and telling me to ‘go back to Africa.’ And they were slut-shaming Corinne, which sucked. For me, I’m just sitting here thinking, ‘Wow. Our world.’ The human race continues to let me down.”

Jackson, who says the misconduct allegations were initially filed by a producer who hadn’t seen the footage, says that his hookup with Olympios was “100-percent consensual. She hopped in my arms, she pulled me into the pool. You’ve seen that with your own eyes.” Instead of viewing what was on the tape, though, Jackson says people twisted reality into something that they wanted to see. “They wanted the angry black guy and this little, innocent white girl. But it wasn’t. Then it was like, ‘Oh, shit. Ok, damn.'”

The fallout has been hard for Jackson, who had a real problem with the way the media ran with the story and cited numerous unnamed sources and crew members. “For months the media will drag your name through the mud. And the moment it’s no longer a story, that’s it. The media can put ‘alleged’ from a source and put anything you want about a person. It sucks. Who raised these people? I read some things from a ‘source’ where I thought, ‘Wow, this is some low shit.'”

“I would hate for my biggest enemy to go through what I’ve been through this summer,” added Jackson.

In the coming weeks, Bachelor in Paradise will air interviews between host Chris Harrison and Jackson and Olympios about what happened that night and the fallout.